The Albino Part One: The Dark Side Of White

White. An amazing color when you think about it. It's not bland or boring, as many people seem to think, but rather it is the result of mixing the seven chromatic colors. In layman's terms, White contains the entire rainbow. White holds the colors hostage. White is a powerful and mysterious color. How can mixing seven colors result in a so called non-color? And isn't it amazing that breaking the power of white (with a prism or rain shower) will result not in disarray, but more even more elegance?

Out of brokenness comes beauty.

Musicians can also crush White; they can break her down and summon her former slaves.
Not all can see this breaking, this destructive beauty, but all may hear the colors rejoicing; anyone with a functioning temporal lobe can listen to their songs.
White is an amazing color to be sure, but she seems to hold a grudge. Rarely will she sing for me; rarely will she set foot on the synesthestic stage. And when she does, in a sort of vengeance to shattering her hold, she will not play by the rules. She cheats in the game of synesthesia. But to catch her cheating, you have first to find her, and like the rare albino animals we see on National Geographic, that is no easy task.
In my nearly 16 years of synesthestic life, I have heard fewer than 10 white songs. Just to put that in perspective, I've probably seen red or yellow songs somewhere in the thousands.
She is a delicate color, when it comes to synesthesia, and unless you are careful in the way you sing, or the way you play, you will break her and she will bleed colors into my mind. But, if you happen to enchant her, if your song happens to match her own, if you are able to call her into view, you had best hope (for my sake) she is in a good mood.

I recall a time when White was angry, a time she broke the rule of safety. It was earlier this year at WinterFest, a mass youth event in Tennessee. High above the stage we waited for the service to start. A promotional video ran its course and the screen went blank; the momentary pause was a welcome break from the blaring speaker system that hung from the ceiling at our approximant altitude.
The next video started; a generic techno song played in the background. Differing shades of red drifted laterally across the synesthestic stage. It was beautiful, as most synesthestic experiences are, but nothing out of the ordinary. But then the song changed, and a new sound was added to the repetitive beat. It was a sound that did not break White, but instead expressed her anger.
At every sounding of this computer-generated noise, white quickened her lightning. It struck out in many directions, stealing my attention away from the video and shooting pain throughout my head. It was different from a headache caused by orange; this was a shooting pain, like looking into a bright light, not a dull one.
At the bidding of the song, the square-edged lightning struck again, it was begging to make me sick. Fast, then slow. Bright, then fading. The pulsating quality and sheer loudness of this sound and color were making me feel nauseous and dizzy.
It flashed again.
I closed my eyes, as if to stop the flashing lights. I had forgotten that this vision was seen through the ears. With 30+ speakers against me, there would be no closing of the third eye.
The song ended soon and the lightning flashed a final time before fading out of existence, but still I had been betrayed. White had crossed a line that colors should not cross; she had broken a barrier that no other color can break. Synesthesia is a pleasant experience; it is not painful or distracting, yet somehow White was able to bend these laws. I wonder how it is even possible. True, orange can give me a headache, but not like this. It's quite Interesting to think about. Perhaps she cheats because this is her own game, because she holds colors like cards in a deck?

The experience wasn't as bad as it sounds, I assure you, but the incident revealed a side of White I hadn't before: The dark side.
She is not evil, as a future entry will tell, but do not forget that she is the master of color. She is easily broken, but as a whole she can be dangerous; she is the albino that will indulge in vengeance. Of course I'm speaking metaphorically, colors aren't living beings; but in light of a song, color does indeed seem to have personality, and I can imagine White would be quite a character to meet.